No Crows

Live
at the Strand

Whirling Discs WHRL 010; 54 minutes; 2006

The Strand in question is a well-known bar in Strandhill, Co.
Sligo, though this intriguing quartet began life at the equally renowned Shoot the
Crows (hence in the county town). Live at the Strand is certainly an unusual
album to review on these pages since by no means could it be described as an Irish
traditional album and the foursome only partially draw upon Irish music as part
of its vast swathe of influences. Indeed the term ‘world music’ might have been
invented simply to describe the mélange of stimuli which galvanise No Crows, ranging
from the Hot Club de Paris, to Portugal, Finland, Moldova, South America, Brittany,
and the film work of Ennio Morricone. Indeed,
there are only two Irish traditional tunes on the entire album, Continental Reel
and The Mountain Reel (and both of these are given the idiosyncratic
No Crows treatment), though a couple of others, Liz Carroll’s Reel Beatrice
and Simon Jeffes’ Tune for a Found Harmonium, are pretty well known.

The band itself comprises long-time Dervish associate Felip
Carbonnel on guitar (often pulsating and exhibiting a multiplicity of chordal
and picked effects), Anna Houston on cello and mandolin (the latter admirably
plucked on Sweet Georgia Brown), the bedrock double bass of Eddie Lee
and, finally, the band’s most famous member, fiddler Steve Wickham of The
Waterboys.

Some of the music here is exquisite in its intensity – a gorgeously
evocative Finnish Waltz or Makh Tsu Di Eygelekh, a dolorous tune
composed by a Jewish inmate of a German concentration camp – but this is also a
band that knows how to swing as the Anna Houston-composed Rock the Gondola amply
exhibits. However, the standout track is the closing Dimecres de Mati/Finn’s
Waltz (both tunes written by Felip), a tremendous tour de force
which encompasses intricate Spanish guitar work, resonant bass and swirling
fiddle and cello.

If No Crows lived in London, they’d be famous by now. Help
put them on the musical map by purchasing this splendid album.